Just some thoughts--blue jeans

This is the map at my office in Piatra.  You can see the red arrows show the distance between Wisconsin and Moldova.  After two years here in Moldova I pause to think of some things that I found amusing and different.  I thought that I should share these thoughts with you.  In the coming month before my return to America, I will post a few of these tiny essays on my blog.

Blue Jeans.   Or as they are called in Moldova  “bluj”.   I think if there is any automatic association between clothes and nationality, it’s blue jeans.  Blue jeans are American.  In my mind, blue jeans are still the clothes you put on when you want to do some serious dirty work, or when you want to say, “hey it’s the weekend and I’m going to be casual”.   We were advised by Peace Corps when preparing to come to Moldova, to pack clothes that were business casual or semi-professional.  In many cases, this advice is appropriate because we are put in office type settings, in mayor’s offices, schools, social centers, organizations.  The dress code there is more formal.  And indeed when Moldovan’s leave the village, they more often than not look nicely dressed. 

So what is amusing to me is that many TV personalities try to incorporate blue jeans into their wardrobe.  Now one would think that being on TV required a more professional dress code, but I believe these personalities are trying to say, “Look at me, I’m modern, or I’m very American”.  Or just cool in other words.  Many men will appear on the talk show in t-shirt and blue jeans.  Or they will have a dress or sport jacket over a t-shirt or casual shirt and have blue jeans on.  This always strikes me as out of place, especially for a host or mc.  I may be revealing my own outdated expectations of dress.  I think the most surprising occasion of blue jean-itis for me was when I saw a man wear blue jeans to church on Sunday.  I still wouldn’t do that even in America.

  

The other thing about blue jeans in Moldova that I find amusing is the particular style of blue jeans.  Almost all the blue jeans I see are the ones that have whitish bleach spots on the thighs, calves, and buttocks.  These white spots are more noticeable of course because the women wear blue jeans as tight as possible on their body.  So this style is so universal I wonder if these blue jeans were made this way because of preference or did the makers of blue jeans succeed in selling their rejects as high style.  Are people wearing these back in the States?  Or did they ten years ago and I didn’t notice?

I have continued to wear the blue jeans I’ve brought from the States according to my own cultural tastes, that is on Saturday when I’m just going to hang around the house all day, or when I’m going to do some “get dirty” work.  And my blue jeans do not have the white wear spots.  And no, I won’t wear my blue jeans to church or on TV.